40 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



" I have described ; but it had many circum- 

 " stances of a similar kind and effect : as I 

 " have long since perceived the advantage 

 " which I could have made of them, and how 

 " much I could have added to that effect, — 

 " how well I could, in parts, have mixed the 

 " modern style, and have altered and con- 

 " cealed many of the stiff and glaring formal- 

 " ities,- — I have long regretted its destruction. 

 " I destroyed it, not from disliking it : on the 

 " contrary, it was a sacrifice I made, against 

 " my own sensations, to the prevailing opinion. 

 " I doomed it and all its embellishments, with 

 " which I had formed such an early connec- 

 " tion, to sudden and total destruction." 



Some, indeed, would be found alike indif- 

 ferent to the claim of antiquity and to the sug- 

 gestions of the Picturesque, — who would 

 view change as improvement, and sacrifice every 

 thing without compunction at the shrine of 

 novelty. I was once consulted by the owner 

 of such a place, who told me, with much self- 

 gratulation, that I could form no idea of the 

 labour he had accomplished in the removal 

 of terraces, sloping banks, &c. so as to reduce 

 the ground to the state in which I then saw 

 it — a flat insipid lawn, spotted all over with 



